Cassette Tape Prophet Ableton Live Pack

If you're looking for warm, analog synthesizer sounds, full of character and imperfections, then this is the Ableton Live Pack for you.

Once, Twice, Three Times Analog

The Cassette Tape Prophets Ableton Live Pack was painstakingly crafted to bring life and charm to your productions. The main ingredients are the Sequential Circuits Prophet 6 analog synthesizer, Elektron's Analog Heat, and a Cassette Tape recorder.

A Beautiful Analog Synth...

The Sequential Circuits Prophet 6 Analog Synthesizer

First I programmed a collection of sounds on the Prophet 6. For the last few years, the Prophet 6 has been a secret weapon of mine when it comes to creating warm vintage synth sounds with a modern twist. It never ceases to amaze and inspire me. The oscillators and filters are so rich, while the modulation capabilities and built-in effects allow you to build some really deep and fascinating sounds.

A Magical Analog Distortion Box...

The Elektron Analog Heat Stereo Analog Sound Processor

The next step in the chain is the Elektron Analog Heat. Elektron's first step into the effects box world is a huge hit with me. You can add anything from a subtle saturation to all out heavy metal distortions. There's also a tasteful EQ, and a musical multimode filter, allowing you to further manipulate the sounds. I ran the Prophet 6 directly into the Heat. Although I tweaked the Heat's settings for each sound, I leaned a little more towards a warm saturation rather than complete destruction. The Heat managed to sort of "double" the analog character of the Prophet.

...Meets Cassette Tape Saturation

Onkyo Stereo Cassette Tape Deck

The Analog Heat was then sent to a Cassette Tape recorder. This is where much of the magic of this Pack occurs. I found that by driving the Tape into the red, my synth patches came to life. Adding just enough harmonics and tape hiss, my sounds were ready to be sampled into Ableton Live.

Deep, Customizable Ableton Live Instrument Racks

Each patch was multi-sampled into Live, ensuring that the resulting instruments would stay true to their original sound and not suffer from too much time-stretching. The resulting instruments were then collected into Instruments Racks. And there are Racks within the Racks! You get control over multiple filters, filter envelopes, chorusing, pitch drift, tape warble and phasing, as well as spacial effects like reverb and delay. I even added a special chain to each device that allows you to mix in some additional Tape noise, sampled from the Cassette Tape.

Each of the Cassette Tape Prophet Ableton Live Instruments allow for complete control and customization.

Make Each Sound Your Own

I think the results are awesome. Each preset captures a special warmth extremely hard to emulate in the box. You can take each sound as it is or use the Macro Controls to further accentuate the vintage and lo-fi character. Below you can have a listen to a couple of tracks I've made to showcase the sound of the Cassette Tape Prophets. These songs came together so quickly thanks to usability and style of the Instrument Racks. They have been lots of fun to explore.

Cassette Tape ProphetsAbleton Live Pack

A warm and heavily analog collection of synthesizer sounds. The Prophet 6 analog synth was run through the Analog Heat and multi-sampled to Cassette Tape. The samples have been crafted into 20 Ableton Live Instrument Racks, complete with Macro Controls for total customization.

AfroDJMac is the work of Brian Funk, a New York-based musician, producer, and Ableton Certified Trainer. He's a writer, podcaster, and curious sound designer who loves to share his knowledge about music production and the creative process.